The Heavenly and Earthly Trinities (Double Trinity)
- unknown artist
Unknown artist, The Heavenly and Earthly Trinities (Double Trinity), 1700s. Oil and gold on canvas; 60½ × 39 in. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Philip W. Amram, 1979.182.
Likely painted during the 1700s in Cuzco, Peru, this painting illustrates the concept of The Heavenly and Earthly Trinities, or Double Trinity, a subject in which the Holy Family is portrayed as the earthly counterpart to the heavenly Trinity. Although the theme probably dates to the late middle ages or earlier, it became especially popular in Catholic Europe and the Spanish Americas in the mid-1600s under the influence of Jesuit theologians and writers. In the painting, the Holy Family is shown walking quietly through a landscape. Aligned horizontally, these three figures—the Virgin Mary, the Christ child, and Joseph—represent the earthly Trinity. In the cloud-filled sky above, the heavenly Trinity is presented in a vertical line: first, God the Father; next, the Holy Spirit (symbolized as dove); and finally, Christ the Son. In this image, the Christ child is shown as the axis where the two Trinities meet, as the connection between the heavenly and earthly realms.
The earliest representation of the Double Trinity in art may have been print from about 1600 by the Flemish engraver Hieronymus Wierix. This painting was modeled after a 1631 Flemish print by Schelte Adamsz Bolswert, itself based on a design by Gerard Seghers. The unknown painter, however, did not merely copy the printed composition, but introduced several innovative elements. For example, although the print shows Joseph with his eyes turned to Mary, the painter directed Joseph’s gaze out from the canvas, looking directly at the viewer. In addition, the painted figures’ clothes and haloes are exquisitely adorned with intricate designs of applied gold leaf or paint. This extraordinary technique is characteristic of painting from eighteenth-century Cuzco and other artistic centers in the Andean highlands.
--Sabena Kull, 2017-18 Mayer Fellow for Spanish Colonial Art
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